The present disclosure relates to an image obtaining apparatus and an image obtaining method, which obtain an image using a microscope.
A method of analyzing a tissue slice removed in surgery and selecting a medication administered to a patient after surgery based on the analysis results has been used in the past in treatment for a breast cancer, for example.
For example, a HER-2DNA probe kit manufactured by ABBOTT JAPAN CO., LTD is used to fluorescence-stain a tissue slice removed in surgery. If excitation light is applied to the tissue slice, fluorescence of red is generated from a HER2/neu gene, and fluorescence of green is generated from an alpha satellite DNA sequence. Therefore, the HER2/neu gene is labeled by a bright spot of red, and the alpha satellite DNA sequence is labeled by a bright spot of green.
In diagnosis using a fluorescent microscope, the numbers of bright spots of red and bright spots of green are counted. Then, if the number of bright spots of red is more than 2.2 times that of bright spots of green, it is determined to be a positive-HER2 reaction. In this case, it is said that the prognosis of a patient after surgery is significantly improved by administering a molecular targeted agent, Herceptin (registered trademark) manufactured by F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd (see, HER2 testing guidelines, third edition, created by Trastuzumab pathology committee, September, 2009, p. 10 <Fish-method determination method>).
Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-107669 discloses a technique to detect bright spots that label cells from a fluorescent image of a biological sample. In the biological sample image obtaining apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-107669, the target part of the biological sample is magnified by an objective lens and is photographed. The accuracy of detecting bright spots is improved by moving the focal point of the objective lens as appropriate during the photographing.